Starting 2025: Higher costs for statutory health insurance, tougher to switch to private plans.*

In Germany, the contribution assessment ceiling (BBG) determines the maximum amount that people with statutory health insurance pay towards their statutory health insurance. If you earn more than this limit, only the portion up to the income threshold is used to calculate your statutory health insurance (gesetzliche Krankenversicherung, short GKV) contributions. If this limit rises, the maximum contribution will also increase. 

If your regular yearly income lies above the current contribution assessment ceiling, your contributions will increase yearly in the statutory health insurance until your income lies below the BBG.

In 2025, the statutory health insurance contribution will therefore rise for anyone earning more than 66,150 € (gross) per year or 5,512.50 € (gross) per month. How much money this means, however, depends on your professional status.

 A lot of people think that when they pay the maximum, it will not increase. So maybe it would be good to add one more sentence to make that even clearer

• Employees and the self-employed regularly pay 14.6 per cent of their income (up to the BBG).  

• Civil servants pay the reduced contribution rate of 14.0 per cent as they do not need daily sickness benefits. Self-employed people can also opt for this reduced contribution rate (excluding daily sickness benefits).  

• The employer pays 50 per cent of the health insurance costs for employees.  

• For civil servants, there are different regulations on the entire “Beihilfe” setup and the assumption of health insurance costs by the employer, depending on the federal state in which they are civil servants. 

The annual income threshold (JAEG) determines the income at which an employee can switch to private health insurance. If you currently earn between 69,300 and 73,800 € (gross) per year as an employee (or between 5,775.00 and 6,150 € (gross) per month) and have the status of a voluntary member of statutory health insurance, you will no longer be able to take out private insurance from 2025, even though you pay the maximum statutory rate.  

The annual earnings limit is irrelevant for the self-employed, civil servants, or students. 

Both the BBG and the JAEG as well as the contributions to statutory health insurance, including long-term care insurance and the average additional contribution, have risen steadily in recent years. In 2024, the average additional contribution was 1.7%, but this is also set to rise significantly again in 2025, along with the annual earnings limit and the income threshold. 

Between 2014 and 2024 alone, the average monthly contributions to statutory health insurance increased by 329 €. 

In addition to the 14.0% or 14.6% of the base contribution, each individual statutory health insurance fund can set its own additional contributions. On average, these add up to 1.7% of the salary up to the BBG in 2024, so you will have to pay them in addition to the basic contributions. 

The Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs estimated the average additional contribution to increase by +0.8% to a total of 2.5% in 2025. The additional nursing care contribution is also set to rise: The increase here will rise by +0.2% and affect every German statutory health insurance scheme member.    

For this reason, we anticipate a future average increase in the supplementary contribution of +0.8% for statutory health insurance and +0.2% for long-term care insurance.

According to the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, employees earning between 69,300 and 73,799 € a year will lose the opportunity to switch to private health insurance in 2025. However, they could still switch in 2024.  

Compared to the previous year, contributions to statutory health insurance are also expected to increase by an average of 9.7 percent. The pure maximum contribution is 843.53 € in 2024 and will rise to 931.62 € per month in 2025. Including the average additional contribution and long-term care insurance, it is 1,050.53 € in 2024 and is expected to rise to 1,174.16 € per month in 2025 for insured persons without children. (As this is only the expected average value of the additional contribution your actual contribution might be lower or even higher.) 

Although as an employee you only pay 50 percent of the contributions yourself (employee contribution), the pure costs for statutory health insurance could still increase up to 754 € (gross employee contribution) per year next year if you earn over 66,150 € (gross) per year. 

Self-employed people pay the entire cost of their health insurance themselves. This means that they are significantly more affected by the increase in the contribution assessment ceiling (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze, short BBG) than salaried employees.  

Due to the increase in the BBG from 62,100 € to 66,150 € (gross) per year, the contributions for statutory health insurance for self-employed persons who earn over 66,150 € (gross) per year will on average be increased to 1,174.16 € (regular rate with sick pay) or around 1,141.09 € (reduced rate without sick pay) per year.  

The increased contribution assessment ceiling (BBG) also affects the amount of your contributions if you have statutory health insurance, and your income is above the current BBG.  

The rise in the contribution assessment ceiling (BBG) does not initially affect you as a student. However, costs will still rise due to the increase in additional contributions (Zusatzbeiträge) for statutory health insurance and long-term care insurance.  

By switching from statutory health insurance to private health insurance early, you can avoid a further health check at ottonova if you can switch directly to one of our private full insurance tariffs after your studies.